DAYTON, OHIO – Today, Congressman Mike Turner (OH-10) delivered remarks at the NATO Parliamentary Assembly Spring Session opening ceremony at the Benjamin and Marian Schuster Performing Arts Center. Congressman Turner welcomed more than 1,000 delegates, officials, national security experts, journalists, and invited guests to Dayton for this historic event commemorating the 30th anniversary of the Dayton Peace Accords. Over the coming days, NATO parliamentarians will convene to address transatlantic security, reinforce stability in the Balkans, and reaffirm support for Ukraine in the face of ongoing Russian aggression.
Turner’s remarks can be found below:
It’s my honor to welcome you to Dayton, Ohio, my hometown, here in the Schuster Center.
I know we’ve had an opportunity to meet several times already as you’ve been here in Dayton, Ohio.
[NATO Parliamentary Assembly President Marcos Perestrello] has accused me of fixing the weather, and I want to accept full responsibility for that. Many of you, when you got here, of course, it was raining, but I understand we're going to have great weather over the next couple of days.
I do want to tell you that I know you know a little bit more about the community that you’re in, and one of the things that you've learned along the way is that you're in a town that has the history of the legacy of the Wright Brothers, the inventors of flight.
And the building that you're in, this Schuster Center, was built while I was mayor.
We undertook the implosion of a million-square-foot Macy's department store to build this Performing Arts Center for our community, and we opened it in 2003 on the 100th anniversary of the Wright Brothers’ flight. We dedicated to their flight in 1903 where they first accomplished the first flight of man.
And the architect helped us to commemorate that 100th anniversary with what is above you, where a chandelier normally would appear, but above you, appearing in LED lights, is a configuration of the night sky the night before the Wright Brothers flew.
That is the actual position of the stars the night before the Wright Brothers flew. And it's known as the last sky that man was not in. And what we know since that night is that man has been in every sky.
And several of those skies, of course, brought you all here to Dayton, Ohio, and we appreciate that their invention has brought us all closer. And, of course, it has brought you all here to Dayton, Ohio.
While you're here, we're commemorating the 30th anniversary of the Dayton Peace Accords. The U.S. showed leadership in intervening with our NATO allies to rise up against what we all saw as horrific aggression that was occurring in the Balkans and the unbelievable loss of life, and bringing the leaders of the Balkans area to Wright-Patterson Air Force Base to bring an end to the bloodshed and to the horrific war that was occurring there, resulting in the Dayton Peace Accords.
Here, while we come together, we are doing a retrospective and a prospective focusing on the Balkans.
What did we learn?
What do we need to do as we look at the to-do list for that fragile peace that has held?
What do we need to do to ensure it for the future?
But also, what do we need to know as to what we learned then how to end conflict and end a war as we look also to Ukraine?
I think when we look to the Balkans, we can all know with confidence that it’s important for us as an alliance, that we all work together, that we rise up together in the face of aggression.
I think that it is a fine line between, as I've said many times with you over the past couple days, between the horrors that we've seen in Srebrenica and Mariupol, and it does take all of us to ensure that the NATO alliance stands against all forms of aggression.
Now, what has the Dayton community’s role been? Well, after the Dayton Peace Accords, I was asked by the [Clinton administration] to participate in helping to rebuild democratic institutions in the Balkan region.
I participated with then-Commerce Secretary Mickey Kantor in an economic mission to the Balkan region with the intention of establishing relations between the Balkan areas and the city of Dayton, and from that, a number of twinnings occurred.
Our city of Dayton, twinned with Sarajevo, our police department and a number of our public works functions, twinned with Sarajevo, our sanitation department, our water department, but also our Chamber of Commerce, some of our hospitals, our universities, twinned in the Balkan areas to help build democratic institutions.
This was important, not only for our community, but for the Balkan areas, as they were coming out of what had been an area of conflict, because they were rebuilding these institutions, but also they were doing so in a way that they had to build confidence in a way that would be responsible and responding to their communities.
One of the areas that we also twinned was in the area of arts. [The Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra] twinned with the Sarajevo [Philharmonic Orchestra] and we're all going to be enjoying that relationship, as the Sarajevo Symphony has traveled here, and on Sunday, they’ll be playing for us at the National Air Force Museum.
And they’ll be staying here in my community and joining with the Dayton Philharmonic and playing on this stage for the Dayton community, joining together with the Dayton Symphony and the Sarajevo Symphony right here for a Concert for Peace, taking the Balkans’ commitment to peace, but also leveraging that to the call for peace in the area of Ukraine.
As we think of the issue of democratic institutions, and building democratic institutions in areas of conflict, there has been no stronger voice in our NATO Parliamentary Assembly than Gerry Connolly for the importance of NATO as a tool and as a voice for democratic institutions.
And unfortunately, we lost my friend Gerry Connolly this week.
Will you all stand and join me in a moment of silence in Gerry’s honor?
Thank you.
Well, I know you all join with me in thinking of Gerry and in thinking of NATO’s role, and in thinking of the importance that as we look to not only our alliance in serving our constituencies, but in serving the important issues of international security, but also democracy.
It is now my honor to bring to the podium the Governor of the State of Ohio, Mike DeWine.